300,000 North Koreans have fled to China risking their lives to flee the mass starvation and brutal oppression of the Stalinist North Korea Kim Jong regime.

Friday, October 15, 2010

North Korean web site and other social media

A new Web site that appears to be one of the first to operate from inside North Korea remained unblocked by South Korean government censors. The Web site carries news in English and Spanish from the official Korea Central News Agency (KCNA).

Like much of what happens in North Korea, official details of the network are lacking, but the emergence of the site comes shortly after North Korea stepped up its propaganda efforts on social media. Uriminzokkiri, a Web site that carries Korean-language despatches from KCNA and domestic newspapers, recently launched feeds on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Flickr.

Last weekend, when North Korea invited foreign journalists to cover the celebrations marking the 65th anniversary of the Korea Workers Party, it surprised correspondents with full Internet access in a press room. Trips to Pyongyang by outsiders are typically marked by a lack of Internet.